Immediately, they walked into a room sectioned off with plastic. 'What the—' Rose started.
'You must be the Doctor,' a woman said. They spun around, towards one of the plastic walls. There was a woman behind it, foggy with her features indistinguishable. Her voice was muffled and had a sort of indistant feel to it that sent the hair on the back of Rose's neck to attention.
'Yes,' the Doctor said, approaching the woman. 'And who are you?'
'Doctor Allysen Carter,' the woman told him. She reached through the plastic. In all of Rose's time travelling the universe and witnessing all the amazing feats and technology, this was the strangest one yet. She inserted her hands into the wall, revealing gloves that were built in so that she could pick up things from the other side. She lifted a cotton swab on the table in front of her. 'I need to take a sample from you and your associate.'
The Doctor stumbled back, a hand pushing Rose behind him. 'You are not getting any samples—'
'It's just a COVID test, sir,' she told him irritably. 'If you wish to go further into U.N.I.T. facilities you're gonna need to be tested and quarantined until we're sure you're not infected.'
The Doctor narrowed his eyes. 'You do realise who I am? What I am?'
'And you do realise that I do not care,' she shot back. 'The coronavirus could infect anyone— and considering your associate's species, she'll need a test whether or not you can prove your immunity.'
The Doctor glanced at Rose. She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms over her chest. 'What sort of test are you thinking about doing?'
Dr. Carter sighed. 'I'm just going to stick this swab up your nose. It won't last a second.'
Rose stepped forward. 'Fine. I've been through worse.'
The woman tilted her chin back with one hand, the plastic smooth and unsettlingly warm against her skin, and stuck the cotton swab it. Rose flinched at the feeling and the Doctor shifted forward, his fingers twitching at his side. Dr. Carter pulled back, placing the sample into a plastic bag.
The Doctor looked at Rose, eyes searching hers. 'Just a bit uncomfortable is all,' she reassured him as she pulled her mask back over her nose. 'It goes up rather far.'
'Your turn, Doctor.'
The Doctor gave her one last look before stepping forward. 'So what is this- this COVID, you said?'
Dr. Carter tilted the Doctor's head in the same she did with Rose and administered the test. 'COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2,' she explained, 'is a strain of coronavirus. It originated in China late 2019 but it's become a global pandemic. Millions have died from it.' She pulled away, putting the swab in a bag.
The Doctor reached up and wiped his nose with the back of his hand before replacing his mask. 'Originated in China? Any idea how it came about?' he pressed.
'Reports say it started in a Wuhan market. Some sort of animal.'
The Doctor frowned.
'So not alien?' Rose asked.
The Doctor didn't answer. 'Is there any correlation to what it kills? What are the symptoms?'
Dr. Carter sighed, removing her hands from the wall gloves. 'For the most part, it's killing those at risk. So mostly people with underlying diseases or conditions, and the elderly most of all. It's a respiratory disease, so the main symptoms are coughing and sneezing, and fatigue and fever. Like the common flu. But then there's the loss of taste and smell. There's been cases reporting nausea or diarrhoea as well.'
She moved about on the other side of the plastic, her voice even more muffled as her blurred form walked about. 'As I said before, you're going to have to be quarantined until we get your test results back. And if they're positive then we're going to have to keep you contained until you produce a negative test after two weeks.'
'Do we have a choice?' Rose asked.
Dr. Carter stopped. 'No, ma'am, you don't. We can't have you leave the facility until we know if you've contracted the disease, and the risk you pose is even greater if you have. You do understand contamination?' She went on, ignorant of the way the Doctor had bristled, 'Now, would you like to be quarantined together or separately?'
'Together,' Rose said, then looked up at the Doctor. 'That is, if you're okay with it.'
The Doctor nodded. 'Together,' he affirmed.
'All right. There's some green tape on the floor out here. If you would follow that to your accommodations. There'll be assistants to bring you food and whatever else you need during your time. We'll have your results in twenty-four hours.' She walked away, her fuzzy figure bustling around a corner.
The Doctor glanced down at Rose, who shrugged. 'I think we're supposed to leave,' she said.
The Doctor looked around. 'H- how? There isn't a door!' He walked over to the plastic sheeting and started running his hand along it. It rippled against his fingers, making a tremendous racket. Suddenly, his hand fell through, and he let out a yelp as he followed in a heap to the floor.
From behind him, a laugh burst out of Rose. She clapped her hands over her mouth, fighting another giggle as she took him in, all sprawled limbs and startled expression.
Gingerly, he raised himself up, straightening his jacket in an attempt to regain his composure. 'Please, Rose,' he sniffed, 'it really isn't that funny.'
She laughed again, the image of him, the shock on his face just as he was falling, flashed in her mind again. 'Oh, Doctor— you should've seen your face!'
'You're cackling,' he informed her. 'I promise you, it's not funny— at all.'
Rose shook her head, holding her middle as her shoulders shook. 'You looked like a baby giraffe! All skinny limbs. God, do you have a bruise? You fell so hard.'
He grunted and reached out, taking her hand. 'All right. That's quite enough. Y'know, I'm actually thinking about having separate accommodations if you're gonna continue on like this.'
Slowly, her laughter subsided, reduced to occasional choked giggles and shining eyes.
They followed the green tape down a corridor to a door. There was a viewing window outside it, that revealed it to be rather small. Only a bunk bed, a desk pushed into the far corner, two stiff-looking chairs, and a door that led, presumably, to a toilet.
'Are you sure we can't bring the TARDIS in?' Rose whispered.
'Well, I'm not one to back down from an challenge.' He raised his eyebrows. 'Are you?'
Rose lifted her chin. 'Of course not.' She pushed the door open, striding in.
As soon as the door closed behind the Doctor, it locked. He sighed and shoved his hands into his pockets. 'Lovely.'
~~~
The Doctor ran his sonic over the walls, pausing every so often to hold it up to his eyes. 'There's a security camera,' he told Rose absently. He jerked his chin to the corner, not bothering to check if she was watching him. 'And it's got a microphone so they can hear everything we're saying.'
Rose looked up from her spot on the bottom bunk and waved at the corner. 'Hullo!' she called.
The Doctor ducked into the bathroom. Faintly, she could hear him beaming his sonic. 'What—" the pipes rumbled to life— "Oh!' There was a clatter and a fair amount of fumbling amidst the white noise of the shower.
Rose threw her legs over the edge of her bed. 'Doctor?' she called. 'Are you all right?'
Rose was halfway to the door when the Doctor stepped out, wet boots in hand and soaked to the bone. He glared at her as she raised a hand to her mouth.
'Not. A. Word,' he warned.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head.
He ripped the sopping mask off his face, revealing a scowl. 'We might as well take these off. It's just us in here after all.'
He dropped his boots by the wall and started taking his jacket off. 'I'm all wet now,' he complained, shaking the garment out and laying it out to dry across his bed. He started unknotting his tie, dripping water onto the floor.
Rose sat on the edge of her bed, looking up at him. 'You lied to me,' she said, casually.
He froze, a sock in one hand and the other dripping, still on his foot. 'I beg your pardon?'
She looked over at him. 'You lied to me,' she repeated.
He eyed her warily and draped his socks over his bed. 'About what?'
'Your regenerations.'
The Doctor's eyes bugged out and he shoved his hand into his jacket. He fumbled with his sonic before pointing it at the camera's corner. He dropped his arm as the camera and microphone filled with static. He sighed and turned to Rose. Calmly, he asked, 'What do you mean?'
Rose raised an eyebrow. 'I think you know exactly what I mean by the way you just reacted.'
He scowled and ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back. 'Who told you?'
'You did,' Rose replied. Then amended, 'Future you.'
He wrinkled his nose. 'Oh, that's brilliant. Gotta love future me.'
'Don't blame him,' Rose snapped. 'Why did you lie about your regenerations?'
'I didn't technically lie,' he pointed out. 'According to Gallifreyan laws, I do only have twelve regenerations. And this is my twelfth body.'
'You made it sound like if you died you would've died forever,' Rose shot back. 'But that's not even the real problem— the real problem is that you.' She poked his chest. 'Lied.' Another poke. 'To.' They were face-to-face now. 'Me.'
The Doctor scoffed, looking away from her. 'Rule one,' he recited, 'the Doctor lies.'
Rose stood up. She reached out, grabbing him by their timeline. He let out a choked sound as his feet stumbled over to her, involuntarily. 'Here's something for you to know, dear,' she hissed. 'The rules don't apply to me.'
He stared down at her, at the rimming of gold around her pupils. Their timeline, brought suddenly into materialism, shined amber between them.
He swallowed.
He should look away.
He should really, really look away.
But he couldn't.
Because there was Rose, hair falling out of its elastic, burning with all the fire that he first fell in love with.
He wanted to kiss her.
He wanted to dive into her mind and see everything through her eyes. He wanted to see what she saw in him; what made her want to keep him with her, even with all his deception and guilt.
'Sorry,' he said finally, his voice low. 'I- I'm sorry for lying to you.'
Her eyes stayed on his, steady. Her tongue darted out and he tracked the movement as she wet her lips.
Her fingers unfurled around their timeline and he felt the loss of its grasp, and suddenly he felt breathless, tetherless. Like the only thing keeping him from drifting out of existence was the very fact that somehow, by some miracle, all the atoms that made him up just happened to be bonded together.
Well, that was true. It just suddenly felt all the more apparent.
She took a step back from him, her legs bumping against the bed before she fell back into it. A sigh drifted from her lips and she dragged her knees up to her chest, suddenly looking exhausted.
'I know you've got questions,' she said, her voice sounding both far away and right beside his eardrums. Her movements were under the same paradox, and he saw her hand pat the mattress, the sound falling a millisecond after the impact. 'Ask away.'
Half-dazed, he stumbled to her bunk, hesitated, then sat on the edge. He snapped out of whatever had taken hold of him as he registered what she said. 'Er, right.' And just like that, every single question he's ever thought of since he saw her disappeared. He kept his head down, looking down at her socked feet as he tried to compose himself.
Get a hold of yourself, he snapped at himself. What the hell is wrong with you? You're acting like a love-sick fool!
Well, maybe I am a love-sick fool, he retorted. Maybe that's all I've ever been.
Oh, stop being so dramatic, he scoffed to himself.
Her toes waved at him from their fabric prison, patiently waiting for him to finish his inner discussion. He followed the way from her toes to her ankles, up her calves to her knees and right over to her eyes. 'How did you survive?' The words came out wrong— too… too much. 'I mean,' he hastened to add, 'How- you said there was a raid? What happened? Tell me…. Tell me everything.'
She pressed her lips together. Her fingers tapped against her leg, a nonsensical beat. 'Right,' she said. She shifted, scooting over to give him space to sit next to her. 'You're gonna wanna be comfortable for this.'
Well, I won't turn down a chance to sit closer to Rose Tyler, he thought.
Oh, shut it, he scoffed back.
A smile curved at Rose's lips as he took the spot next to her, trying desperately not to touch any part of her and failing when their shoulders brushed and immediately all neurological functions stopped and redirected to focus every bit of electricity on the pressure of her shoulder against his.
God, remember in that dream when we took her and—
Shut up!
There's barely an inch between us. If I just shift my leg a little—
For the love of Rassilon, STOP. She does not want that right now! I don't even know if I want that right now!
Oh, I want it though.
No, stop. Stop, right now. She's saying something.
Suddenly, his brain was whirring back online and the world did not consist of Rose Tyler's shoulder, pressing against his. Or the sharp point of her elbow digging into his ribs. Or the fact that if she turned and looked at him right now then he would only need to lean forward— not even lean forward just a small tilt— and he could capture those lips— oh, Rassilon, those lips— with his own…
He dropped his head in his hands, massaging at his temples. 'Sorry,' he had the awareness to ground out. 'I— give me a moment.'
What was happening to him? For weeks— was it weeks?— he was perfectly fine and now? Ridiculous. He was acting like some stupid hormonal human teenager. Ugh. What could be worse?
'Okay,' he said, face still in his hands. Maybe if I don't look at her, he thought, I won't be rendered to a semi-intelligent spark plug. 'Go on with your story.'
He could hear the smile in her voice as she began, and he didn't know which was worse: what she was saying or her voice as she said it.
'When Donna said that with the modifications she described, that it would increase the TARDIS coral's growing speed by 59, John thought she meant by 59 percent. But even then we'd still be dust and long-forgotten about by the time she was ready.
'But still, we planted it. John created conditions almost identical to Gallifrey's in the Torchwood labs and we planted it there.
'He didn't think it would grow. Said there was too much Earth.' She chuckled.
'It grew in five months. That's supposed to be impossible— such a complex being really should've needed more time. But we came back from holiday and suddenly she was there, all blue and perfect and gorgeous.' There was a note of awe in her voice, but the edges were tinged with bitterness.
'She was beautiful. Her interior had changed, a lot more organic and all with bits of metal stuffed in like an afterthought. But she was wonderful. Cared for us almost as well as the Old Girl did.
'The first trip went beautifully. We went to Woman Wept, which was our intended destination. No aliens or trouble or anything.
'We were drifting in space when the raid happened. I can't remember what it was that we were doing, just that we weren't in the console room when it happened. One minute we were drifting and the next our TARDIS was screaming like her insides were being torn out.'
Her breath caught, and the sound was enough for him to finally look up. He looked through the space between his knees and his arm to see her, eyes glassy and lips parted.
'Have you ever heard a TARDIS scream, Doctor?'
He didn't tell her that, yes, he had. That he's heard thousands of them, dying. That it was one of his greatest fears to hear his own TARDIS make those noises.
A tear fell from her eyelashes, dropping down her cheek. 'John told me to run. But I didn't. I followed him to the console room and that's when we met them.' She spat the word with such hatred, her expression contorting on one of pure malice.
For a second, the Doctor's hearts stumbled. If they were cruel enough to bring this side out of Rose…
He shuddered to think of what happened.
'John tried to pacify them, talk them out of the ship.' She laughed, the sound too watery to be humourous. 'They shot him. They fucking shot him.'
She looked down at him, her tears flowing freely. She gasped for air, her shoulders shaking as she tried to compose herself.
'Oh, Rose,' he breathed. He sat up, his hearts breaking for her. He didn't know what to do. Was it appropriate to touch her? What could he say to console her?
Except, maybe she didn't want to be consoled. Telling her 'it's okay' would do nothing to stop the grief in her heart. Wiping her tears away wouldn't wipe away her hatred for those raiders.
He swallowed and leaned down so they were eye to eye. He wanted to reach out, to cradle her face. But he wouldn't, because this was about Rose, not him.
There was a phrase in Gallifreyan. One that came out of the Time War. It didn't translate well into English— or any Earthen language for that matter— but the basis of it was this: The depths of my sorrow is no match for the abyss of your grief. I feel your sorrow, and while grief is your own, that does not mean you need to bear it alone.
The words slipped from his mouth before he could think of what he was doing. It didn't matter how many centuries it had been since the Time War, since he had last spoken or heard a syllable of his native tongue. They were the sort of words that haunted a person; for better or for worse.
When he finished, Rose stared up at him. Her throat worked for a moment, her jaw shifting as she tried to form words. Finally, she whispered hoarsely, 'Was that Gallifreyan?'
He nodded.
She reached up and swiped the back of her hand across her face. She sniffed. 'What- what did it mean?'
The Doctor swallowed. He looked down at the space between them. 'It- it's letting you know that there's no way I can understand, fully, what it is that you're feeling…' He flexed his fingers and drew a ragged breath. 'But it's also an assurance. Letting you know that I'm here…' Oh, to hell with it. He was gonna do it.
Before he could lose his bravery, he reached over and intertwined their fingers. He fumbled awkwardly, trying to slot their fingers together. Her hand twitched underneath his and he stilled. Oh, God, he thought, now I've gone and messed everything up.
She let go of his hand, and before he could snatch it away in shame, she picked it up with her other hand, their fingers fitting together perfectly.
His breath caught and he stared at their hands. Her hand. Her beautiful, wonderful hand. The hand that has shown mercy, and the hand that has shown ruthlessness. An oh, so very human hand. The hand that bound them together, in the shared rope of time stretched between them. The hand that he loved to hold, and wanted to hold— and could hold— forever.
They sat in silence, the Doctor still marvelling over the fact that he— him!— was holding Rose Tyler's hand.
Maybe the universe didn't hate him after all.
~~~
Clang!
She startled awake. She looked around, taking in the white-tiled room. It was darker than the rest of the room, lit by fluorescent lights, wherever she was. Was she in prison? What had she done?
A slight pressure on her hand had her looking down. A hand. And her hand. A hand that she didn't recognise. She followed it to its person— a person who was sitting very close to her— and took him in. Her heart wasn't thundering, and alarm bells weren't going off in her head, like it should've if she truly didn't know this man.
He had a long face and a big nose, with bright green eyes. His hair was long and brown, giving him a sort of boyish look. And the way he was dressed. Was he a professor of some sort?
She reached out to inspect his timeline, and as soon as her fingers brushed against it, he tensed up, his fingers tightening against hers.
Curious.
Very curious.
Most people didn't react whenever she identified their timelines.
He stayed tense as she took a quick peak, and as soon as she looked, she remembered.
She was Rose. He was the Doctor.
And the facility they were in was St. Thomas' Hospital, not a prison, and they were being quarantined for the time being until they got their test results back, seeing if the strain that had caused an entire global pandemic had infected them.
'What woke me up?' she asked, reaching up with her other hand to rub her eyes.
'I reckon that's them bringing us food,' he said.
'Oh.' She stretched her legs out from under her and started to get up. 'Well, I dunno about you but I'm famished.'
His hand slipped out of hers while she walked over to get the food. Two aluminium trays sat on the floor, bangers and mash plopped on. 'Oh, brilliant,' she muttered, leaning down to pick them up.
She sat on the floor in front of the bed, setting the tray on her knees. She leaned her head back to address him, 'Well, c'mon,' she said. 'I know you haven't eaten for ages and there's no way you're eating on my bed.'
Slowly, he slid down the bed to land beside her. Rose pushed the tray towards him and picked up a banged with her fork. Tentatively, he did the same.
It was around his first bite that he asked, 'You never got to finish your story.'
She raised her eyebrows and looked at him. 'Sorry?'
He kept his eyes on his tray, poking about his mash. 'You never finished.' Then he looked up, his eyes wide. 'I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. Not if it'd… if it'd hurt you.' His face went red and, hastily, he shoved a forkful of mash into his mouth. Instantly, he grimaced and opened his mouth, spitting it out.
She wanted to smile at his antics but for some reason her mouth couldn't form the gesture. She handed him a paper napkin to wipe his mouth. 'Er, yeah. I can finish.'
He eyed her warily but didn't interrupt as she began.
'I did run away, after that. I ran down the corridors, and it didn't matter how much our TARDIS tried to help, I could always hear them behind me.
'Finally, I got to this room. Another console room, I think. It had the big console in the centre and all the round things on the walls. The lights and everything powered on as soon as I walked in and she groaned.'
She paused to scoop a bit of mash onto her sausage and take a bite. While she did that, the Doctor spoke, 'It makes sense. Since your initial console room was broken into, your TARDIS must've created another console room to house herself, since the old one was compromised.' Then he added, 'It's a little useless, considering the threat was inside the TARDIS.'
Rose nodded. 'Yeah. Well, the raiders finally caught up with me. I knew they wouldn't listen to reason, and I was already… emotional.' She swallowed. 'Our TARDIS was much more compliant. As soon as I lifted the plating, I looked into the TARDIS.
'And I took her. I saw the timelines. All of them.' Her voice broke. 'I saw their timelines, the raiders. I reached out... and I- I snapped them.' She looked over at the Doctor, his face blurry. She tried to blink away the blurriness but it only fell down her cheeks, wet and hot. 'I killed them, Doctor.'
She sniffed and reached up to wipe her face. Damn it, she was crying. She drew a breath and hated how shaky it was, and tried to gather herself enough to finish the story.
'It was burning through me. And I knew you weren't there to save me, to take it out of me. So I… I made myself able to carry it.'
She shook her head and wiped at her eyes. Her tears had subsided enough that she could see the Doctor. 'I saw a timeline where there were cracks in the universe so I slipped through.' He paled. 'But it wasn't the right time. I've been hopping through time and space, trying to find you.' She scoffed. 'I could see all of time and space, and you, Doctor, were interwoven through every fibre of it. A billion billion threads but I couldn't get directly to you.' She looked up at him, at his new new face. A different man but the same person.
'Then I met Rory. And I kept meeting him. I never touched another timeline, ever since… but I kept coming back to him.' She smiled, a little sadly. 'He was such a sweet kid. All innocence and that wonderful kid energy. It's a bit weird, to be honest, seeing him all grown up.'
The Doctor laughed, the sound a little too jarring to be fully genuine. 'Yeah. Every time I look at Amelia, all I see is a little girl in her nightie.'
Rose chuckled. 'You saw her in her nightie?'
He blushed. 'Twice. But let's not talk about that.'
She forked some mash into her mouth. 'I'm not totally sure how it works.' She gestured to herself. 'I can see the timelines. I can bring them into focus if I concentrate hard enough. And I can interact with them, as you know,' she added. His blush darkened.
She tilted her head at him. 'What does it feel like? When I touch your timeline? And why can you feel it? Is it because we're bound?'
He pursued his lips together. 'It feels… it feels like you've grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me towards you. And it sort of… feels warm? Like…' He reached down and took her hand, holding it gently. 'Oh, well, my body temperature is lower than yours so your warmth is more apparent to me. But it's like this warmth but all over.
'And as for why I can feel it, I suppose us being… bound, as you said, could be a part of it. But I reckon it's mostly the fact that I'm a Time Lord and I'm more sensitive to time than others. Take Rory, for example. If you picked up his timeline— only picked it up and didn't do anything to interfere with his timestream— then I reckon he wouldn't have known you done anything at all.'
She smiled at him, and he felt his hearts flutter inside his chest at the sight. 'I think you just wanted an excuse to hold my hand,' she teased.
His face went hot. 'No! I mean— but, really— I didn't—' he sputtered. 'Really, Rose, it was for demonstrative purposes.'
Her smile turned into a smirk. 'Whatever you say, dear.'
'And there's another thing,' he hastened to say. 'Back in the lift, what happened? You- you said you met a future regeneration?'
She nodded. 'I sort of... fall through time, I suppose. It didn't happen as much before—' She gestured between them— 'but I'd go back. I'd see my mum or my dad, the dad from this universe. Moments from my childhood I forgot. Sometimes a future. I saw Jack quite a few times. It must've been some time with ol' leather jacket you cos he never aged much. But I'm never quite sure when I was. Sometimes I'd be able to interact with whatever I was seeing, most of the time I was just a spectator.' She shook her head. 'I'm sorry, I'm not making a lot of sense.
'But since I—' she waved a hand between them again— 'I've been seeing things that I think is form your future as well. And your pasts. Like I said, I'm never really sure. I've met that Scottish you. And there was this charming man with such wild hair and this outrageously long scarf.' She giggled at the memory.
He blushed. 'Oh, I hope he wasn't too cheeky with you.'
'I didn't get to intercede much with him but he seemed very nice. And there was this lovely gentleman, all Victorian and polite.' She frowned. 'He was very sad. All of the times I saw him. It's a shame I couldn't speak with him.'
'Yeah.' The Doctor explained, 'That was during the Time War.' He ran his free hand through his hair. 'Anyways. It sounds like you're jumping about your timeline— our timeline.' He swallowed, scratching at the back of his head. 'As soon as we finish up here, I'll see what I can do about stabilising you. Are there any tells? If you're about to- to fall?'
She nodded. 'I get a headache. Sort of all over. And the lights go all flare-y. Whenever I— what did you say? Stabilise? Whenever I stabilise, I can't figure out when I am. I can usually get a vague idea if it's a time I remember, like in the lift or whenever I saw Jack or one of the yous I remember. But most of the time I'd ask.
'I've been looking at your timeline,' she added. 'And not for any sort of clues or- or anything. Just to- identify you, I suppose. It's easier to focus when you're there.' She swallowed. 'I'm sorry.'
The Doctor dipped his head down so he was looking her in the eye. 'There's nothing for you to be sorry about. My timeline is your timeline now.' He smiled. 'I said it's like holding your hand. Don't ever apologise for holding my hand.'
'I really am sorry,' she told him, the words thickening in her throat. 'You never asked me to- to do this to you. It's— God, I'm so sorry.' She slipped her hand out of his, reaching up to wipe the tears off her face. 'I've forced you into a- a relationship you never even wanted. I mean, you've probably had a hundred other companions after me. You've already moved on and—' She dropped her hands, looking miserably up at the ceiling. 'I've just come and ruined your life all over again and now I'm crying even though it's my own fault. God, Doctor, I'm so sorry.'
He reached out, throwing caution to the wind, and cupped her face. He drew her down to look at him. 'Rose Tyler,' he said softly. 'You said it's been six months? Since you last saw me?" She nodded. 'And do you know when it last was? For me?'
She blinked, tears running down her cheeks in hot streams. 'On the beach. With John.'
He smiled sadly. 'No, Rose. It was on New Year's Day. 2005.' He repeated the words, 'I bet you're gonna have a really great year.'
Her mouth fell open.
'I was regenerating, from that stuffy old body into this one.' He chuckled, his eyes watering. 'The last face this face ever saw. This body, created in memory of you, Rose Tyler.' He brushed his thumbs against the apple of her cheeks. 'And for every millisecond since you appeared, I have missed you. There wasn't a moment that went by that I wished I had taken you away from that damned beach. That I got to travel all of time and space with you.' He smiled through his own tears. 'And now I get to! Forever! It's everything I've ever wanted. And you gave it to me.'
He looked at her, at the tear stains on her face, the shine of her eyes. She was beautiful. His Rose. His Rose. Forever.
They'd figure out exactly what she had done later. But for now, they'd simply enjoy the fact that she had come back, and that she was going to stay.
They had plenty of time.